In a surprise move by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, delivered a speech at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday, October 3rd, promising that fuel duty will not rise in the budget released on the 29th October.
“On their side”
With this statement, the PM said that the government is “on the side of hardworking families.”
Mrs May demonstrated her rededication to those who just about manage each month, saying “Many people in towns and cities across our country, cannot take these [substantial savings] for granted. They are the people this party exists for.
They are the people for whom this party must deliver. It’s for them that we cut income tax. Introduced a National Living Wage. Extended free childcare. And froze fuel duty every year. Because for millions of people, their car is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Money in the pockets of hard-working people from a Conservative Government that is on their side.”
Response from the Chancellor
Philip Hammond, who last month we reported on wanting to raise fuel duty, has admitted that while the cost of freezing duty would come at great cost to the Exchequer, he acknowledged “The high oil price and the near-record pump price of petrol and diesel are also imposing a significant burden on motorists.”
“So we have decided that to support hardworking families, we will once again freeze fuel duty in the upcoming budget.”
Scrapping the rise will save the motorist £1.20 every time they fill up, on average, but will cost the Treasury £800 million over the course of the financial year.
Not all good news
Following in the wake of this news, it was also revealed that the current supermarket price war is set to be short-lived as the oil price has skyrocketed recently. This time last week it was at $80 and as of the 3rd of October, it was sitting at $84 dollars. Tensions between Iran and America, as well as a volatile pound amid the Brexit negotiations have all contributed to the high prices of oil.
For drivers of petrol cars, there has been some relief towards the end of September, with the price of petrol starting September at 131.1ppl at a national average, and finishing at 130.4ppl, thanks to the price war.
Diesel drivers, on the other hand, have seen the opposite with prices starting at 133.9ppl, dropping the following week to 133.4ppl and then at the end of the month hitting a high of 134.5ppl. While the price of diesel is higher at the moment due to “increased European demand for heating oil which is produced from the same ’part of the barrel’, but the higher oil price and weaker exchange rate means the effect is exaggerated,” says Simon Williams of the RAC.
Prepare for increase
Experts are warning that an increase in fuel prices is incoming and to be prepared. If you can, fill up your tank now as the prices are lower.
The RAC’s Simon Williams said of the increases “Petrol drivers will be hoping that September was the month that stopped the rot in terms of rising pump prices, but this may well not be the case. A dark cloud is hanging over forecourts as oil is at a four-year high and there is lots of volatility in the exchange rate due to the increasing tension of the Brexit negotiations.”
Check the prices near you by downloading the PetrolPrices app and you’ll be able to check the prices wherever you are in the country.
You can also save money on your driving by using some hypermiling techniques, see if any of these tips help:
- Don’t use unnecessary speed. The Department for Transport figures states you’ll use up to 9% more fuel driving at 70mph than you would at 60mph and up to 25% more fuel travelling at 80mph instead of 70mph. The faster you drive, the greater your fuel consumption. Set off a little before you need to, to avoid feeling rushed.
- Keep the car moving as much as you can. The ability to do this depends on traffic conditions and what’s happening on the road ahead, but slowing down and having to speed up again uses more fuel.
- Keep your engine revolutions low by changing up gears early. You’ll lose speed fast if you let the engine labour. Try to keep the engine speed in the ideal fuel-efficient spot.
Do you think that the right decision has been made over fuel duty? How will the projected increases affect you? Let us know in the comments below
A sensible step for once. I suppose it would have been too radical to reduce it slightly……..
Why not do away with Road Tax (which was reintroduced recently) and nominally increase fuel duty. That would save people £140 a year and would be a fairer system as you cannot evade fuel duty and does not penalise people who do low mileage in their cars. The higher your fuel consumption or the more mileage you do you pay accordingly, everyone pays the same rate.
It would appear that crisis of global warming, caused by burning fossil fuels, is considered to be of no consequence. Looking at the cars on the road compared to twenty years ago, a great many people are prepared to pay large amounts of money for big cars, so it is not that they do not have the money to drive a car, they simply don’t want to pay for the damage they are doing to the environment.
Looking at the cars on the road twenty years ago and you find that a lot of large cars today are more economical than most small cars cars then . Plus the “small” car itself has got larger,, for example look no further than the ford range my twenty year old Fiesta is smaller than today’s KA , and a Mondeo is almost the size of the last Granada yet far more economical !
Fuel has been rising steadily for months now. When will it end.
The decision not to increase the tax levy is welcome but the reason she gives, ‘to support hardworking families’ is a rod for her own back now. When it does have to rise she will be accused of no longer supporting those families.
The cost of fuel is always a divisive matter… two examples:
1. Supermarkets are driving harder bargains with their suppliers to offer goods at cheaper wholesale prices which we as customers all want but the cost of delivering those goods by road is always hitting the haulage firms – not the delivery by supermarkets to their own shops so much but the suppliers/supermarkets who rely on 3rd party hauliers to deliver to the regional distribution depots (RDC). The supermarkets are vying for customers loyalty (and simultaneously feeding shareholders profits) whereas most hauliers are simply trying to run a business – no shareholders (generally), just increasing fuel bills. Have you ever thought who actually pays to get the produce from the supplier to the RDC? Is it the supplier or the Supermarkets … As a once part-time LGV agency driver, my average 12-15 hour day cost the haulier about £180 wages (plus agency charges) then about £120-160 in fuel and then there’s the lease/cost of the vehicle and serving etc. I might shift around a hundred pallets on a good day but most is around 40-60. Some of the pallets could be high cost items but some are not
2. The division of motorists who are split over green energy HEV etc. and those with Gas Guzzlers/Chelsea Tractors – the vast majority of which are status symbols rather than necessities (in both camps). If the revenue from fossil fuels is lost then its only a matter of time before the charging of electric cars will soar. What happens to Shell/Esso/Etc. if we all stop buying petrol and diesel? What happens to the tax revenue from them to the various governments? Their workforce no longer needed – loss of jobs, loss of investment. research, geological surveys etc. etc.
This green planet ‘we all want’ is not going to be as cheap as we think!
“Keep the car moving as much as you can.” Can this be fed back to all the councils who like to program their traffic lights to keep going red to constantly stop you moving, while sweet stuff all is happening on the other roads at the junction?
Plus 20mph speed limits increase pollution in built up area’s and increase fuel consumption!!
What she means of course is that they will promise anything and say anything that they feel will be popular and win votes in the upcoming general election which is no more than a couple of years away. All promises are given a delivery date which is always post election. If they aren’t voted in they don’t have to deliver and if they are, they have won the vote so will backtrack on everything they said to get them there. And to mention the supermarket pricewar was short lived, didn’t happen where I live in Lincoln. We have two tesco stores, both with fuel stations and both with different prices just like all the other supermarkets that can be found in every other town nearby and far, their prices vary wildly from store to store. Price wars my @rs#.
Just like Corbin and McDonnell are doing then.
If they were really interested in helping electors they would either reduce or scrap this extra tax that they introduced.
It’s all doublespeak saying they are helping by not raising it.
It’s a double whammy as 20% VAT is added as well as no mention of the fact that the UK has one of the highest rates
Duty onfuel is the highest ever acut in duty would be more beneficial to everyone,consumer prices would drop,industry would also benefit,PUBLIC TRANSPOR T and Airlines would also benefit making travel and cargo much cheaper to carry therefore more people would use these services so increasing profits to companies,more taxation to the treasury on those profits.
Every time the fuel goes up the treasury gains more tax through the VAT. A well known fact is that the more fuel goes up the less the treasury obtains as less miles are driven hence why they stopped the fuel escalator a few years back. Plus if they scrapped the car tax and added a small amount to fuel so you paid as you drive it may just encourage people to use the cars less plus the added advantage of no one escaping paying for the tax and extra through foreign drivers paying it when visiting our country win win all round.
Foreign truck drivers rarely buy any fuel in the UK, they carry it all with them in huge tanks plus some have been known to have the headboards of their trailer
s full of diesel to top up their tanks when they get low. therefore they dont buy fuel ,they dont pay road tax, so they dont contribute to our tax in any way, plus they can under cut all our hauliers. They should be charged duty on all the fuel they import to compensate for the loss of tax.Why is there such a different price on fuel by companies who are in the same town same area? Why not do something about fuel prices on Motorways?
Since government rarely uses the revenue raised via the motorist for the benefit of the motorist, it is well beyond the time when the duty should be reduced. This would be fairer for the motorist, but then, government (politicians) (of all persuasions) never listen to the people they purport to represent.
Good advice about saving fuel. Slowing down is usually safer too. And let cyclists and walkers share the road, each mile they do today can save fuel for you tomorrow.
What she failed to mention is the fact that for every penny that goes on the pump price, HMRC rake in an extra £2m per DAY in VAT alone.There’s absolutely no need to increase duty as the VAT continues to rake in £billions for the Government.
Let us not celebrate too much : Every price freeze is followed sometime later by a free-for-all price increase at the pumps – the “lost” fuel duty is recouped … and more!
it may lose the exchequer by not putting more duty but the higher fuel prices more than compensate them by more VAT